Biden’s Israel visit this week: more of a stopover than a destination

DAN COLEMAN: The US President's chief focus in his upcoming Middle East journey is Saudi Arabia; those hoping for progress on Palestine or human rights should not hold their breath

FOR THE JEWISH community, a visit to Israel by an American president is a very big deal. However, those hoping for some breakthrough this week when Joe Biden travels to Israel and the West Bank are likely to be disappointed. As the American-born, Israeli journalist Herb Keinon argued in the Jerusalem Post, “Israel is just a stopover on the way to Riyadh.”

Biden himself seems to agree, titling his Washington Post op-ed last Saturday: Why I’m Going to Saudi Arabia.

Indeed, it is in Saudi Arabia, where Biden will meet with eight Arab heads of state, that the stakes are high.

Among the items on the agenda are the diminishing prospects for reviving the Iran nuclear deal, increasing OPEC oil production to meet global demand, and addressing thorny issues of human rights.

By contrast, conversations with Yair Lapid may amount to little more than a symbolic expression of bonds and friendship, a meeting in which, according to a White House briefing, they will “discuss Israel’s security, prosperity, and its increasing integration into the greater region”.

The US pro-Israel advocacy body AIPAC, rather overenthusiastically, called it “an important affirmation of President Biden’s iron-clad commitment to advance the solid alliance between the two democratic allies”.

Lapid, as a caretaker prime minister, is hardly able to make significant commitments on behalf of Israel. And the Israelis would be aware that, after the upcoming Congressional elections, Biden’s ability to move treaties or legislation through Congress may be diminished.